Place to Hide - An Atticus Rhodes Oneshot
by rizanicole
Summary: Another Atticus Rhodes one shot that I came up with way back when. I wrote this story years ago, but just recently changed the ending to something that, I think, is better than the original. I'm pretty happy with the final product, so I hope you enjoy it! Please review and let me know what you think! **Originally published on Quizilla 8/03/2012**


Hi, my name is Natalie Arthurs. And this is the story of how I fell in love with an idiot.

Now, you're probably thinking that that's not the nicest thing to call someone I claim to love, but I assure you that I'm justified in calling him that. You'll see for yourself pretty soon, anyways.

It all started when I enrolled in Duel Academy. I'd always wanted to go to school there, ever since I was a little kid. I was able to transfer there after having gone to North Academy for my freshman year. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I got in.

I was even happier when, soon after the year began, I made a couple of great friends. Jaden, Syrus and I were practically inseparable. Since I was one of the few girls in the Slifer Red dorm, they were nice enough to take me in, and as it turned out, we all got along really well. The two of them were also sophomores, so we were all the same age.

But enough with the introductions; let's get on to how this all actually went down.

One day, Jaden, Syrus and I were walking to class when we heard someone shouting from off to our left. We all turned that way, but couldn't see where the noise was coming from because of the building blocking our view.

"What was that?" Syrus asked, a typically timid edge in his voice.

"I dunno, Sy." Jaden said. "But hey, it might be a duel. Let's go check it out!"

We ran around the side of the building, where Jaden's suspicions were confirmed. Two Obelisk guys, both of whom looked older than us, were battling it out. A ring of people, cheering for the two duelists, had gathered around them. Apparently, this duel was pretty interesting.

Once I'd taken in the general scene and the three of us had shoved to the front of the crowd, I got a better look at the playing field and the two duelists. With a huge, three-headed dragon on his field, the tall guy with the greenish-aqua hair seemed to be winning. The guy with the long brown hair had no monsters on his field, and it looked like he was about to lose.

The aqua-haired guy suddenly spoke. "Alright, Cyber End Dragon! Attack his lifepoints directly and finish this!"

At his command, the huge dragon lunged forward and attacked its opponent. Once the brown-haired guy's lifepoints had been reduced to zero and the holograms had faded, the two duelists walked forward and shook hands. Neither of them looked angry, so I assumed that they were friends. A few minutes later, the crowd began to disperse, and the two duelists left, as well.

"Hey, Jaden," I asked, leaning over to my friend, "Who were those guys?"

Jaden raised his eyebrows. "You really don't know? Wow, you're even more behind than I am!" he said playfully. "The serious-looking one is Zane Truesdale. He's Syrus's older brother."

I looked to Syrus in surprise. "You never told me you had a brother, Sy!" Sure, we'd only been in school for about three weeks, but I still would've thought he would have told me something like that.

"Yeah, I do," he said, avoiding my gaze. "We don't always get along so well, though." I could tell that he didn't really want to talk about it, so I decided to go ahead and change the subject.

"What about the other guy?" I asked Jaden.

"Oh, that's Atticus Rhodes. He's Alexis's brother."

"Oh, okay." I said. I knew who Alexis was, and I was friends with her, we just weren't as close as I was with Jaden and Syrus.

"Well, we should probably be getting to class," Syrus said after a moment, reminding us all of where we'd been going. With a dramatic groan from Jaden, we headed off in the direction of class. In my mind, I wondered whether or not I would see any more of Zane Truesdale and Atticus Rhodes.

As the weeks went on and I got more adjusted to life at Duel Academy, I also learned more about its students, including Zane and Atticus. From what I could gather, Zane had a somewhat cold personality and could be cruel to Syrus. Although he was friends with Atticus, the two couldn't have been more different. Atticus was easygoing and funny. From what I heard, he was also pretty popular with the ladies; girls stampeded wherever he went.

But after almost two months at Duel Academy, I still hadn't met this Atticus Rhodes. I certainly wasn't one of his fangirls, but he sounded like a pretty cool guy, so I thought it would be neat to get to talk to him. I definitely didn't think we would meet in the way we did, though.

One Saturday when I was cleaning my dorm room, I heard the door to my room suddenly open. I looked up from the drawer I had been organizing in time to see a guy with long brown hair in an Obelisk uniform rush into my room and slam the door behind himself. I recognized him as Atticus Rhodes immediately; what I didn't know was why he was in my dorm room, or why he was acting the way he was. In a word, he looked afraid. He didn't seem to notice me in the room, as he was standing at my door with his back to me, staring out of the peephole in a paranoid way. I noticed that his shoulders were heaving from exhaustion, which let me know that he must've been running a pretty long time.

After I'd collected myself from the slight shock of having a stranger bust into my room, I spoke up. "Any particular reason you decided to come into my dorm room uninvited?"

Atticus jumped at the sound of my voice, and turned around in surprise. His surprised look soon turned to one of exasperation, though. "Oh, gosh," he began, "I didn't know there were any girls in Slifer! That's why I decided to hide here!"

For whatever reason, I decided to humor the guy and give him an explanation. "There's only a few of us, so you might not've seen us before. But that hardly explains why you randomly chose a dorm room to 'hide' in."

"Wait," he began, looking a little confused, "Do you know who I am?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "I know you're Atticus Rhodes and that you're Alexis's brother. Is there something else I should know?"

"I didn't mean it like that," he said quickly, "I just figured that you would chase after me if you knew who I was. That's why I ran into a Slifer dorm, because I was trying to escape my fans."

"Oh," I said, beginning to understand Atticus's situation. "Well, Atticus, I've got no interest in chasing you around, so if you want to hide here for a while, that's alright with me."

Atticus looked surprised at first, but his expression soon turned to one of relief. "Thanks," he said. "I think I've finally lost them, but I should probably hide out here for a while until they stop looking for me."

I nodded. "That's fine." After a moment, I added, "Do you want a glass of water or something? You look pretty tired."

"Yeah, that'd be great," he said from where he was awkwardly standing in front of the door.

"Oh, you can sit down on the bed if you want," I said to him, noticing that he had nowhere else to sit. He nodded and took a seat on the small bed while I went to get a glass of water.

When I brought the water back to him, I took a seat next to him.

"Thanks for that," he said, after taking a big gulp. He then looked at me curiously. "By the way, I don't think I caught your name."

"Oh, sorry about that, I forgot. I'm Natalie Arthurs."

"Nice to meet you Natalie. As you already know, I'm Atticus Rhodes." he said, giving me a winning smile.

I couldn't help but smile back at him. "Nice to meet you, too."

"So, Natalie. Why aren't you part of the mob of girls that chases me around?"

I laughed lightly, then saw that he was being serious. "Uh, chasing random guys around isn't really my thing." I told him. "Besides, I hadn't even met you until five minutes ago!"

"Well, yes," he said, "but most of them haven't ever met me, either. They just can't resist my good looks and charm." He gave a dramatic flip of his hair.

This time, I really did laugh at him. "That type of stuff doesn't really work on me, Atticus."

"Good," he said. "I guess that means we can actually be friends. If it's okay with you, of course."

I smiled at him again, looking straight at him. "Sure, why not?"

"Cool," he said with a grin. "So, what kind of stuff do you like to do?"

In the time Atticus was in my room that day, we learned that we actually had a lot in common. We were both really into music, and though he was more laid back than I, we both tried not to take life too seriously.

"Well, Natalie," he said about an hour later. "I should probably get going. I'm sure the girls have given up by now." He stood up from the bed. "It was great meeting you, though."

"You too, Atticus. And I promise I won't tell anyone where you were hiding."

"Thanks, Nat," he said, giving me another smile. "I owe ya one. See ya around!"

Soon after that, he took one more cursory glance out of the peephole and left. I smiled to myself as I turned to finish cleaning my room. I was glad to have finally met the great Atticus Rhodes; he had not fallen short of my expectations.

Over the next few months, Atticus continued to use my room as a place to hide from his fangirls. He didn't come in every day or anything, but he would show up about once a week, out of breath and panting. When he saw me in the room, he would always get the same sheepish expression on his face.

"Would it be okay if I stay here for a little while?"

And my answer would always be the same. "Sure, why not?"

And that's how I got to be close friends with Atticus Rhodes. Because every time he showed up, no matter what I'd been doing when he barged in, we always ended up talking for a long time. And we didn't just hang out in my dorm, either. We met outside around campus for lunch sometimes, too. But, since it was almost impossible to get Atticus alone, and because we both knew his fans would riot if they saw him with any one girl, that didn't happen too often. So, we mostly stuck to meeting in my room.

And much to my own frustration, I eventually did start to fall for Atticus. It wasn't immediate, of course. I didn't even start to develop feelings for him until about three months after we'd met. But it happened nonetheless. I grew to look forward to him rushing into my room just so I could talk to him.

Through our conversations, I learned that there was more to this guy than most people gave him credit for. He was funny and laid back, yes, but he was also a brave and noble person. I mean, the stories he told me about the Shadow Riders - and how he'd actually been one of them for a while - both amazed and terrified me.

"How did you get through all that?" I asked him one day, when he was telling me the story of how he became Nightshroud.

"I don't really remember most of it, to be honest," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Jaden's the one who eventually snapped me out of it, though. He beat me in a duel inside a volcano, of all places." Atticus said, looking off into space as he remembered the experience.

"Really? Jaden never told me about that." I said.

Atticus shrugged. "He doesn't really like to brag, I guess. He saved lots of people last year."

So, like I said, the more time I spent with Atticus, the more I grew to like him. But, of course, I could never tell him that. After all, our entire friendship was based on the fact that I was the only girl on the island (other that his sister) who didn't freak out whenever he came near her. So, I just decided not to tell him, and let things keep going on the way they were. There was no need to risk messing up our friendship over my little crush, right?

Well, that's what I thought for a while, but one day, a wrench got thrown into my "ignoring my feelings" plan.

We were walking to class together when a mob of Atticus's fans spotted us. "Atticus!" they squealed, as they started running towards us. Normally, we wouldn't have risked walking to class together, but we'd been watching a movie in my room and had lost track of time, so we needed to get to class quickly.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the lovestruck mob as I turned away and kept walking to class. These girls didn't know Atticus at all; I'd actually had conversations with him and knew that he was an amazing guy, but they only cared about his looks.

Atticus didn't bother to run this time, since we were about to go to class anyways. Instead, he stopped and raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, girls," he said, sounding friendly but slightly exhausted. I'd walked on ahead of him at this point, not wanting any trouble with his mob of fans. Unfortunately, one of them must have spotted me.

"Who's _she_ , Atticus?" I heard one of the girls ask. The other soon began to ask similar questions.

"That's my friend, Natalie." he said to the girls.

I could feel about a hundred pairs of eyes boring into my back as the girls stared me down with envy. "Why're you hanging out with _her_?" one of them asked, a bitter tone in her voice.

"Because," I heard Atticus respond icily, "she's my friend. And you should all give her the same respect you give me. Okay?"

I finally turned around to look at the scene behind me. Atticus's arms were crossed over his chest, and he looked angrier that I'd ever seen him before. His mob of fans begrudgingly nodded, not wanting to have their much-beloved Atticus mad at them.

"Good," he said after a moment, his expression softening a bit. "Now, we should all get to class."

I didn't get a chance to ask Atticus about his strange behavior until a few days later, when he was (once again) hiding out in my room.

He looked confused when I finally mentioned it to him, though. "Whaddaya mean, Nat?"

"I mean, why'd you stick up for me the other day? You knew it would only make all of your fans mad." Since he usually tried to keep them happy, I really didn't understand his actions.

"Because, Nat," he began seriously, "you're practically my best friend. I'm not ever gonna let anyone say anything bad about you. You mean more to me than they do."

I was shocked by what he'd said. As an aspiring pop star, I had assumed that Atticus held his fans above all else. And I'd never known that he considered me to be one of his best friends.

"Really?" I asked.

"Of course," he said, unfazed by the surprised tone in my voice.

"Oh," was all I could say. "Well, thanks," I added after a minute.

He smiled at me. "No problem."

And then, he walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me in a protective hug. I wrapped my arms back around him instinctively. He'd never actually hugged me before, but I had to admit to myself, it was a feeling that I could definitely get used to.

And it was there, in his arms, that I realized something both wonderful and awful - I didn't just like Atticus Rhodes, I was in love with him.

At first, I didn't really know what to do about being in love with Atticus. All I knew was, it scared me. First, I tried to deny to myself that I loved him. But after the next time he came over to visit, I knew that that plan wasn't going to work.

After that, I decided that I would just have to tell him the truth about how I felt. But I soon discovered that I wasn't nearly brave enough to do that. I started to tell him a couple of times, but I could never actually get it out. Here's an example of what would happen when I would try to tell him:

When we were hanging out in my room one night, we were eating dinner that Atticus had snuck out of the Obelisk dining hall.

"Man, this food is awesome!" Atticus said, stabbing a piece of steak with his fork and putting it in his mouth.

I nodded, feeling nervous since I was planning to tell him that I loved him. "Hey, Atticus, there's something I need to tell you," I began, poking at my own steak.

He swallowed his mouthful of food. "Sure, Nat. What is it?"

I looked right at him. "Atticus, I have to tell you that I love... this Obelisk food!" I finished lamely. I scooped some peas up on my fork and tried to look excited as I forced a smile. "I mean, I know it's probably kind of a hassle, but you've got to sneak me food from there more often!"

Atticus just smiled at me. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

I swear, the boy never suspected a thing. Which is why, as I said earlier, he's an idiot. I mean, I really couldn't have been any more obvious.

But see what I mean? Every time I would try to tell him I liked - loved him, I would chicken out.

For a few days, I considered asking Jaden or Syrus to tell him for me, but that just wouldn't have felt right. Besides, it would have meant having to tell them how I felt about Atticus, and so far I had kept that a secret from everybody. So, even though it kind of sucked, I decided that unless I suddenly became very brave, I would just have to keep my feelings a secret from Atticus.

For about another month, nothing happened as far as romance goes. Atticus continued to visit, and we continued to grow closer, but nothing much changed.

Then one day, everything got turned upside down. It started out just like normal, with Atticus showing up in my room out of breath, asking for a glass of water.

"Sure, Atticus," I said. I went to the sink, made a glass of water, and handed it to him.

"Thanks," he said, taking a big gulp of it, just as he had the first day we met.

"No problem," I said, sitting down on my bed and motioning for him to join me. After downing his glass and putting it on the dresser, he sat down next to me.

"So, what's new?" I asked.

"Nothing much." he said. "What about you?"

I shook my head. "Nothing at all." And then, something strange happened. I still to this day have no idea where it came from - maybe I was just tired of waiting for something to happen - but I got the courage to finally tell him.

"Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about, Atticus."

"Okay," he said, shifting his weight on the bed so he was turned to face me. "What is it?"

I looked right into his eyes. I knew if I hesitated, I would lose the small bit of courage I had, so I just came out and said it. "Atticus, I love you."

I hadn't known whether that would get a positive or a negative reaction, but I certainly didn't expect him to just stare at me like he did. His face was blank, completely expressionless. And I knew right then that I'd made a huge mistake.

I broke eye contact with him and stood up quickly, fighting back tears. "I'm sorry," I said to him. And I turned and ran out of my own dorm room, slamming the door behind me. Through the fog of my own emotions, I faintly heard him call my name just before I left the room, but I had no intention of turning back.

I had no idea where I was going. I just ran. I just wanted to get as far away from Atticus as possible, and find somewhere to hide where he could never find me again. Eventually, I ended up standing on a rocky part of the island right next to the ocean.

Not knowing what else to do, I sat down next to a tall rock, pulling my knees up to my chest and finally letting myself cry. I sobbed into my hands, absolutely devastated. "Why did I do that?" I wondered out loud, my words broken by my sobs. I'd lost the guy I loved for good, and I managed to lose one of my best friends at the same time.

After about ten minutes, just as my sobs were beginning to quiet down, I heard someone's footsteps approaching.

"Natalie!" I heard the person yell. It was Atticus, of course. "Where are you? I need to talk to you!"

I tried to stay quiet, since it sounded like he was coming my way. I really didn't want to talk to him right then. He was probably just going to let me know that he wouldn't tell anyone else about what I'd said, so I wouldn't be embarrassed. Or maybe, being the nice guy he was, he would just let us pretend that the situation never even happened at all, so we could go back to being friends. Either way I didn't want to hear it, though. I knew I'd messed up our friendship, and there was no way things could ever really go back to the way they'd been before.

"Natalie!" he yelled again. I tried to shrink behind the rock I was sitting next to, but when he walked by he spotted my anyway.

"There you are," he said in a softer tone, kneeling down beside me. He was trying to look into my face, but I couldn't bring myself to meet his gaze. "Why'd you run away back there?" he asked.

I sniffled and shook my head, not wanting to answer him.

"Hey," he said, gently taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifting up my tearstained face so he could look me in the eyes. "You know, you really should've given me a chance to answer you back there, 'cause I love you too, Natalie."

I was in utter shock. "Y-you do?"

He gave me a soft smile. "Of course I do. You're the only girl in the world who I can completely be myself around, and you actually like me for who I really am. I've never felt this way about anyone before, Nat. I just never expected you to love me back, so you caught me off guard."

I smiled at him as I wiped a few remaining tears off my face. All I could say was, "Oh, Atticus..."

And then he did something I'd been wanting him to do for the longest time. He leaned forward and kissed me.

The kiss was soft and gentle, and full of love. Atticus placed one of his hands lightly on the back of my neck, and I put my arms around his waist.

I don't know how long we stayed like that in our embrace, but eventually we had to pull apart for air.

I looked into Atticus's eyes, unable to keep the smile off of my face. He was smiling at me, too, and we were both out of breath.

"I love you, Natalie," he said sincerely.

"I love you too, Atticus."

He then pulled me into a protective hug, just like the one that had made me first realize I was in love with him, and we were both silent for a long time. After a while, Atticus pulled back and helped me to my feet. I realized that the sun was just beginning to set over the water, and the view we had was absolutely gorgeous.

We walked along the edge of the island hand in hand, quietly enjoying each other's company as the sun was setting. I kept stealing glances at Atticus along the way. He looked happy and peaceful, with a small smile on his lips, and I couldn't believe how lucky I was that he was mine.

When we arrived back at my dorm room, Atticus spoke for the first time in a while. "Thank you for telling me how you feel, Natalie." He laughed lightly. "I'm not sure I would have been brave enough."

I shook my head, smiling. "I ran away right after I told you, so I'm not sure it could really be considered 'brave.' But I'm so happy that you feel the same way."

He nodded, looking down at me fondly. "I certainly do."

We looked at each other in silence for a moment, before I reluctantly said, "I guess it's getting late. But I'll see you tomorrow in class, right?"

He nodded again. "Of course!" He paused for a moment, and then added, "I'll come to your room beforehand. We can walk over together."

I couldn't help but smile at the implication of his words. Atticus had no intention of hiding our relationship from his fans - he was willing to let the world know that we were together, even at the risk of annoying them. "Thanks, Atticus," I said softly.

He shook his head. "Don't mention it." He leaned down and kissed me once more, very gently, with my face cradled in his hands, before pulling away. "Goodnight, Natalie."

"Goodnight, Atticus."

He turned and started to walk away, heading back to his own dorm room. He would glance back over his shoulder every so often, as if to check whether what had just happened was real. I just smiled and waved when he did this, until he was finally out of sight.

I went into my room and closed the door, leaning my back against it with a happy sigh. Atticus Rhodes was finally mine, and I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.


End file.
